For a while it may be that the caution of the poor Levantine may enable him to avoid contact, but sooner or later, perhaps, the dreaded chance arrives; that bundle of linen, with the dark tearful eyes at the top of it, that labors along with the voluptuous clumsiness of Grisi—she has touched the poor Levantine with the hem of her sleeve!
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

but what he could not tell, a man had verry friendly envited him to go and eate in his lodge, that the Indian had locked armes with him and went to a lodge in which a woman gave him Some blubber, that the man envited him to another lodge to get Something better, and the woman held him by the blanket which he had around him another ran out and hollow'd and his pretended friend disapeared—I emediately ordered every man to hold themselves in a State of rediness and Sent Sergt.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

To the question why they broke the treaty, I answer by placing first an account of their grounds of complaint and points of difference, that no one may ever have to ask the immediate cause which plunged the Hellenes into a war of such magnitude.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

It might easily happen that a French lady and an American, neither understanding the tongue of the other, meet at the house of an Italian, where there is also an Italian monolinguist, so that the hostess has to talk in three languages at once.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Yes, Mr. Ends had the address, and the check would be mailed the first thing in the morning.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

He would not risk probably a public execution; but a private assassination would at once terrify any of my companions from attempting a like feat, at the same time that a cautious line of conduct might enable him to avoid the enquiries and the vengeance of Adrian.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

[ The inundation and plague were reported by a deacon, whom his bishop, Gregory of Tours, had despatched to Rome for some relics The ingenious messenger embellished his tale and the river with a great dragon and a train of little serpents, (Greg.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

nēmō umquam sapiēns prōditōrī crēdendum putāvit , V. 1, 38, no wise man ever held that a traitor was to be trusted .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane

The carriage was delayed, and Mrs. Mavick excused herself to ascertain the cause of the delay.
— from That Fortune by Charles Dudley Warner

The gentleman stayed so late sometimes—probably until eleven o'clock—that Miss English had to ask him to mend his ways.
— from A Portrait of Old George Town by Grace Dunlop Peter

Thus sixteen millions eight hundred thousand acres may be managed by eight thousand four hundred families; and the fraction of two hundred thousand acres will be more than sufficient for cabins, out-houses, and potatoe-gardens; because it is to be understood that corn of all sorts must be sent to us from England.
— from The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. - Volume 07 Historical and Political Tracts-Irish by Jonathan Swift

Everything, from the most exquisite hummingbird to an eagle and a wild turkey.
— from A Little Girl in Old New York by Amanda M. Douglas

For that matter, I think you know as much as a woman need ever know, which is to read, to write—but one ought not to expect of a woman such exactness in spelling as of a scholar—and to cipher to such a moderate degree as may enable her to add up her bills.
— from The Chaplain of the Fleet by James Rice

child finds little that is adapted to the purpose, the mere search for 139 materials enables him to appreciate the value of the commercially prepared ones and aids him in picturing these materials in their raw state.
— from The Tree-Dwellers by Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

Still shall [Pg 395] my egotism have to appear for many weary pages a most impartial and universal friend to the world of bibliopolists; I cater multifariously for all varieties of the literary profession: booksellers at least must own me as their friend, though the lucky purse of Fortunatus saves me from being impaled upon the point of poor Goldsmith's epigram, and I leave to [——] the questionable praise of being their hack.
— from The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper by Martin Farquhar Tupper

His noble simplicity and single-mindedness of character, and his unaffected kindliness of manner, endeared him to all who had the good fortune to be honoured with his acquaintance, and by all of whom his death will be long and most deeply regretted.
— from Notes and Queries, Number 65, January 25, 1851 by Various

Mason Elliott had tarried and Fleming Stone, too, was still there.
— from Raspberry Jam by Carolyn Wells